Every good painter paints what he is.
It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.
There is nothing more difficult for a truly creative painter than to paint a rose, because before he can do so he has first to forget all the roses that were ever painted.
For me, painting is a way to forget life. It is a cry in the night, a strangled laugh.
Of all lies, art is the least untrue.
I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make my statement as well as or better than the whole could.
An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.
Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.
The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.
We have art in order not to die of the truth.
I paint flowers so they will not die.
I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best.
I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.
Space is the breath of art.
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.
I think being different, going against the grain of society is the greatest thing in the world.
Contrary to general belief, an artist is never ahead of his time but most people are far behind theirs.
The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.
Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.
Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.
For as long as I can remember I have suffered from a deep feeling of anxiety which I have tried to express in my art.
Some colors reconcile themselves to one another, others just clash.
History develops, art stands still.
Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.
I think the idea of art kills creativity.
Nature is the art of God.
Can anything be sadder than work left unfinished? Yes, work never begun.
It is absurd to look for perfection.
Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.
Longer Version:
Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. To such an extent indeed that one day, finding myself at the deathbed of a woman who had been and still was very dear to me, I caught myself in the act of focusing on her temples and automatically analyzing the succession of appropriately graded colors which death was imposing on her motionless face.
Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.
An artist cannot fail; it is a success to be one.
An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way.
In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.
Longer Version:
In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different- life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself- a girl should be two things: who and what she wants.
I feel that my environment reflects my belief in the grace and art and elegance of living simply.
The goal of art was the vital expression of self.
Artists are just children who refuse to put down their crayons.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
Nothing is art if it does not come from nature.
A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.
Longer Version:
A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is thereby a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.
When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
Art is what you can get away with.
True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.
Longer Version:
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.
Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings.
My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.
When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.
The main thing in making art often is letting go of your expectation and your idea.
